List of Haunted Houses Coming to Universal Horror Unleashed in 2025

Universal Horror Unleashed is a year-round entertainment experience opening in Las Vegas that will basically be a permanent Halloween Horror Nights. This post shares the latest news about the new HHN-like concept, including a list of Haunted Houses and opening timeframe, plus our commentary about moving from temporary haunts during spook season to a permanent attraction.

Obviously, the big thing here is that Universal is the creator of Halloween Horror Nights, the world’s most popular global Halloween event that is held in Florida, California, Japan, and Singapore. This original concept will draw from that, bringing to life Universal’s vast library of classic horror films and today’s most terrifying tales.

On All Hallow’s Eve 2024, Universal Destinations & Experiences officially announced that Universal Horror Unleashed will open in 2025. Here’s the press release announcing the new Nevada attraction, plus freshly-released concept art and a teaser video for Universal Horror Unleashed…

In a darkened warehouse on the edge of Las Vegas, a relentless spectacle of horror is rising. Universal Horror Unleashed. For decades, Universal’s masters of horror have created some of the world’s most frightening films and events. Now guests can experience it all in a year-round fully immersive horror experience.

The fears only felt in movies will come to bone-chilling life. Enter the evils of four haunted houses, each with its own terrifying story:

• Universal Monsters
• The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
• Scarecrow: The Reaping
• Blumhouse’s The Exorcist: Believer.

These haunted houses aren’t for the faint of heart – they are intense and feature elevated moments where the horror surrounds guests in unimaginable ways. The nightmares don’t end there.

Surrounding the houses are four sinisterly themed and immersive areas, featuring unique live entertainment experiences. In select locations, guests can enjoy eerie eateries and bars featuring horror-centric food and drink offerings. Plus, guests can expect a continuously updated experience with must-see seasonal events and one-of-a-kind merchandise. Your deepest fears are closer than you think.

Universal Horror Unleashed is part of the company’s ambition to introduce new products to new audiences in new markets. It is the anchor tenant in the 20-acre expansion of AREA15, an immersive entertainment district in Las Vegas.

“Universal’s rich history in the creation of the horror genre drove our desire to bring a year-round horror experience to the incredible entertainment offerings in Las Vegas,” said Page Thompson, President of New Ventures for UDX. “We’re thrilled to have our award winning Creative and Entertainment teams working tirelessly to bring these terrors to life in 2025.”

Universal has long defined the horror genre with its classic films featuring iconic characters such as Frankenstein, The Mummy, and the Wolf Man and only Universal ignites this genre’s thrill and excitement in three-dimensional, full scale. UDX will continue to share more details on the plans for Universal Horror Unleashed in the months ahead.

Here’s a teaser trailer for Universal Horror Unleashed:

Turning to commentary, let’s start at the end of that video. That’s Jack the Clown, who is the fan-favorite icon of Halloween Horror Nights, having appeared at HHNs around the globe over the course of the last decade or two.

Jack has a ton of lore that you can Google if you’re so inclined, but the basic gist of Jack Schmidt is that he’s a killer clown with a massive ego and thirst for the spotlight (in addition to blood). Jack the Clown also has a female partner, Chance, who is basically a rip-off of Harley Quinn from Batman. I guess that makes Jack a take on the Joker, sorta.

Universal has not indicated how Jack the Clown or Chance will appear at Universal Horror Unleashed, but he’s teased in that video and they’ve shared a couple pieces of concept art featuring the killer clown. The most recent of which gives a pretty good idea–they’ll be part of a bar show. Here’s a look at that:

The big news here is the haunted houses, so let’s discuss those. As a general matter, this list of houses looks eerily familiar to Halloween Horror Nights fans, as versions of these have appeared in the past in Orlando or Los Angeles.

It’s our expectation that Universal Horror Unleashed will recycle some of the ideas from these houses, putting the best ones to use in permanent venues with higher production values and bigger budgets. The amount of money and time they’re able and willing to spend on a temporary two-month set-up is probably a lot lower than something that’ll likely last years.

To borrow a Disney comparison, think of this as the difference between The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh in Magic Kingdom and Pooh’s Hunny Hunt at Tokyo Disneyland. Not a perfect comparison since both are permanent, but that’s the caliber of quality differential we’re anticipating.

Universal Monsters is a staple of Halloween Horror Nights, with houses for the franchise appearing over the years. The Universal Horror Unleashed haunted house is likely a mixture of original content and material adapted from those. (I know everyone has their own HHN opinions, but I think the story of Universal Monsters houses is largely one of squandered potential.)

I also wouldn’t be surprised to see Universal borrow some elements of Dark Universe at Epic Universe to incorporate into the Universal Monsters House. I’m not suggesting we’ll see a blockbuster budget or breathtaking animatronics, because obviously that won’t happen. But overlap in terms of props and some practical effects is possible. Especially if the R&D or initial fabrication is the costly part, and the end product can efficiently be cloned.

Likewise, there have been numerous Texas Chainsaw Massacre houses over the years, including The Legacy of Leatherface at Halloween Horror Nights in Universal Studios Hollywood. Similarly, Scarecrow: The Reaping appeared at Universal Studios Florida back in 2017 and later at Universal Studios Hollywood. (We did HHN in 2017, but honestly, the details are hazy.) The Exorcist: Believer was featured at Halloween Horror Nights in Orlando last year; we didn’t do that version of the house, but we did the OG Exorcist back in the day–and it was excellent.

One potentially unpopular opinion I have when it comes to Universal Horror Unleashed is that it should focus more in established intellectual property. We’ve done HHN many times over the years, even having Frequent Fear passes for several years that we lived in Orlando. Despite that, I never got “deep” into the Halloween Horror Nights fandom, which can be a bit intimidating.

Regardless, being a regular-but-casual Halloween Horror Nights guest gave me a newfound appreciation for Disney’s delicate balance in appeasing the diehards and catering to regular guests. When it comes to Walt Disney World, I’m the diehard fan who wants more original theme park attractions that aren’t tied to existing movie IP.

When it comes to Halloween Horror Nights, I almost always preferred established movie IP. It made the houses more approachable, and guests entering with background knowledge provided a bit of a storytelling crutch–usually, in a good way. Like a ride, there’s so little time to tell backstory or accomplish elaborate worldbuilding, so it’s nice when guests already enter with that. In the case of HHN, it also helps that the IP houses almost always have bigger budgets thanks to studio marketing funds.

With that said, getting haunts attractions right is still really tricky! I am by no means an expert on this front, as almost the entirety of my experience is with HHN in Los Angeles, Orlando, and Osaka.

What I will say is that it seems to me like Halloween Horror Nights has the tough task of striking a delicate balance; the crowd feeds off of itself, in ways both good and very bad. Nevertheless, the crowd does have an energy, and that is often the make-or-break component for HHN houses. (Same goes for the scareactors!)

Suffice to say, it’ll be interesting to see how that translates to a permanent venue. A few years back, Universal Studios Hollywood opened a walk-through attraction based on the Walking Dead. Even as a fan of that show and HHN houses, that did almost nothing for me. It fell flat, which likely had as much to do with its substance as its standalone nature. Obviously, this experience will offer far more than that, so not exactly a good comparison–just a thought I had about how much getting the mood right matters, as does the audience energy.

Ultimately, regardless of what else comes to fruition with Universal Horror Unleashed in Las Vegas, it is yet another example of Universal doing something new and ambitious as it looks to grow its footprint in the attractions industry. While plenty of concepts like this have failed over the years, I highly doubt this will join them. Both the Universal and Halloween Horror Nights brands are incredibly powerful, and the latter should travel well outside of Hollywood and Orlando.

My hope is that Universal swings for the fences with this and shakes up its HHN formula. But honestly, I’ll be pretty satisfied even with a more permanent and high-budget version of Halloween Horror Nights. Some of the recent houses that have clearly had “Netflix money” have been phenomenal from a themed design perspective, and I look forward to seeing what Universal Creative can do when given the resources. My only request: Resident Evil. (That’s actually not my only request, but if I list all of them, I’ll invariably get a bunch of comments about Universal not owning those IPs.)

If you’re preparing for a Southern California vacation, check out our other planning posts, including our exhaustive Guide to Universal Studios Hollywood. Need advice for LA? Read our Ultimate Los Angeles, California Planning Guide. Visiting other SoCal theme parks? Consult our comprehensive Disneyland Vacation Planning Guide and Knott’s Berry Farm Planning Guide.

YOUR THOUGHTS

What do you think of Universal Horror Unleashed’s list of haunted houses? Are you excited for this permanent horror attraction at AREA15 in Las Vegas? Think this will be a success–similar to Halloween Horror Nights? Would you like to see Universal Creative push the envelope with this, or stick to the tried and true formula of HHN, but with better polish? Do you agree or disagree with our commentary? Will you be attempting to visit Universal Orlando or Hollywood anytime soon? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!